Counos Newshttps://www.counos.io/news
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specificationmojoPortal Blog Moduleen-US120noCounos Coin and the First Public Offering of a Decentralized CryptocurrencyCounos is an all-in-one financial platform based on Blockchain which started activity in the market of cryptocurrencies through offering a wide range of stablecoins based on credible global currencies such as Counos U, Counos CAD, Counos Cash and Counos E and stablecoins based on precious metals like Counos Gold, and Counos Silver.

Counos Coin will ultimately mine 21 million coins with a similar algorithm to that of Bitcoin, and in fact, the number of cryptocurrencies is limited like Bitcoin. Presently, more than 16,800,000 of this coin have been mined, and the end of its mining can take more than 400 years.

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n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/counos-coin-and-the-first-public-offering-of-a-decentralized-cryptocurrencyhttps://www.counos.io/counos-coin-and-the-first-public-offering-of-a-decentralized-cryptocurrencySun, 23 Jun 2019 09:18:00 GMTNew York Officials Accused Bitfinex and TetherAccording to reports by The Block and Wall Street Journal, Bitfinex and stablecoin provider Tether are under legal pressure by the New York attorney general office.

The attorney general office of New York has claimed that the Bitfinex exchange has lost $850 million and has subsequently used Tether stablecoin to cover up this loss.

According to the press release of this office on Thursday, the court order has been issued against the iFinex Inc. By virtue of this order, this company which also operates Bitfinex and Tether is required to cease infringing New York laws and defrauding its citizens.

$850 Million of Customers’ Assets, Lost or Transferred!?

The order states that according to the documents offered by the OAG spokesman, Bitfinex had planned more than one billion dollars in collaboration with customers and partner investment companies by 2018. Also, it is stated that Bitfinex has sent this amount to Crypto Capital Corp, a payment processor. It is said that this center holds onto other exchanges’ assets, such as QuadrigaCX. The stored asset of Tether has been used to compensate for the financial shortage, but this shortage and financial transfers were kept hidden from customers. So far, claims indicate that more than $700 million has been moved and Bitfinex has not signed an official agreement with Crypto Capital Corp for this collaboration.

Court Verdict for iFinex Managers

While it is not clear how the subpoena is going behind the closed doors, some are worried that this might turn out to be a serious threat for Tether, which has been under pressure for some time.

By virtue of the court verdict, directors, officers, managers, agents, employees, contractors, warrantors or other people related to iFinex have been banned from having access to assets, giving assets or any other claim for Tether’s dollar resources. The people related to iFinex have been ordered to avoid any interference in documents, especially those reports that show measures of such sort.

By adducing to this case, the AG does not intend to stop the legal business of Bitfinex or to redeem by Tether; on the contrary, the agency wants the court to issue the preliminary instruction in order to avoid the current situation until the end of investigations.

This guideline was published months after the AG published its results about the request for data exchange, by focusing on a group that includes Bitfinex.

Bitfinex Response

Near the end of Thursday, Bitfinex published a statement. It is said in this statement that the proposed claims are contrary to reality and the loss of $850 million from Crypto Capital is not true. Also, Bitfinex claims that this amount of money has not been transferred or unallocated, but it has been confiscated and stored. Now we should wait and see that after the end of the final process of review, where would this case get to.

danial...]]>https://www.counos.io/new-york-officials-accused-bitfinex-and-tether
d.abedini@farhost.net (danial)https://www.counos.io/new-york-officials-accused-bitfinex-and-tetherhttps://www.counos.io/new-york-officials-accused-bitfinex-and-tetherWed, 01 May 2019 12:33:00 GMTCryptocurrency Regulations, the Main Topic in G20 SummitIn the upcoming G20 Summit in June, Japan will provide central banks directors and member states its experience in regulating the field of cryptocurrencies. Japan will host the G20 Summit in the city of Osaka. The hosting member state of this summit has the right to determine the topic of this group’s sessions. Japan is one of the most advanced countries in the field of cryptocurrencies and currently many companies in this field are active in this country. This country legally recognized making payments using cryptocurrencies in April 2017. Japan has prepared the basis for developing the industry of Blockchain and cryptocurrency by setting regulations and consistent surveillance. In the experts’ opinion, Japan’ experience in setting regulations in the field of cryptocurrencies can be used in many G20 counties. Japan will prepare and publish its experiences in the form of a guide book for the G20 Summit. This guide book will address important points in this field, specifically the regulations about preserving users’ assets.

In recent years, cyber-attacks to the crypto exchange centers of Coincheck and Zaif have made the surveilling organizations in this country more aware and careful regarding the security of crypto industry in a way that FSA (Financial Services Agency) launched a committee to set regulations in order to increase the security of crypto exchange centers in Japan. FSA is the official regulating body of the government of Japan to ensure the stability of financial markets in this country. FSA has forced active companies in this industry to report suspicious transactions. Transactions that do not comply with the defined frameworks of FSA should be immediately reported to this organization. Also, according to these rules, users are not allowed to create multiple accounts. Japan hopes that this summit would be able to help considerably in implementing security protocols for trades, a system for protecting customers’ assets and a mechanism for raising the awareness of users about incidents such as the occurring of cyber-attacks.

According to a news published last year in the Japanese media, the member states of G20 have agreed to prepare a shared system of taxation for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. Taxation in this field has always had some problems that is exploited by some profiteers. For instance, Japan has not been able to tax the existing companies in this field that are active in this country but do not have an office there.

According to experts, the entrance of global assets to the crypto and Blockchain industry needs clear regulations more than anything, but this matter is faced with many challenges. The lack of clear explanations, tokenization of assets and competition between countries are among the factors that further complicate the regulation process. Therefore, given the international nature of these challenges, they cannot be solved without international cooperation.

danial...]]>https://www.counos.io/cryptocurrency-regulations-the-main-topic-in-g20-summit
d.abedini@farhost.net (danial)https://www.counos.io/cryptocurrency-regulations-the-main-topic-in-g20-summithttps://www.counos.io/cryptocurrency-regulations-the-main-topic-in-g20-summitWed, 01 May 2019 12:24:00 GMTJapan’s Central Bank Released Report about Central Bank’s CryptocurrenciesWith the advent and development of Blockchain technology and a variety of cryptocurrencies in recent years, many experts are engaged in discussion and exchanging opinions about central banks’ launching cryptocurrencies. Recently, Japan’s central bank evaluated the role of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the current monetary system. This report was published on February 19 and has examined various topics in this field such as potential impacts of central bank digital currency on payment productivity, liquidity crisis, and mechanism of monetary policies. As it was mentioned in this report, Japan’s central bank has no plan to replace cryptocurrency with the common currency of this country in the near future. This report divides potential CBCDs into two categories. The first category includes those that are available to people like money bills; the second is those that are limited for large payments. This categorization took place in March of last year according to the report by BIS (Bank for International Settlements) financial institute.

In a part of this report, the use of cryptocurrencies in money laundering and crimes is discussed. As it was pointed to in this report, a money bill only shows its own value information and provides no information as to who owns it. And so, money bills are easily used for money laundering, tax evasion, and criminal activities. However, CBDC can reduce this anonymity and be a good alternative for high-value transactions; for instance, the People’s Bank of China announced on January 20, 2016, that it has a plan to release CBDC in the future, it also pointed out in this announcement that avoiding tax evasion is another advantage of launching CBDC in this plan.

It needs to be mentioned that, while this report is published, the director of Japan’s central bank, Masayoshi Amamiya, had expressed his negative opinion regarding the release of cryptocurrency by the central bank. According to Masayoshi Amamiya, the cryptocurrency released by the central bank is not an effective financial tool. According to experts, CBDC can be used as a means of control, when the interest rate is reduced to zero. In fact, the interest rate of deposits can be increased by CBDC, so that society would spend more money. However, Masayoshi Amamiya questioned this attitude and said that the success of CBDC depends on the country’s common currency.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/japan’s-central-bank-released-report-about-central-bank’s-cryptocurrencies-
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/japan’s-central-bank-released-report-about-central-bank’s-cryptocurrencies-https://www.counos.io/japan’s-central-bank-released-report-about-central-bank’s-cryptocurrencies-Thu, 28 Feb 2019 05:36:00 GMTBiggest Canadian Crypto Exchange Users’ Assets FrozenThe assets of 115 thousand users of QuadrigaCX platform have become unavailable after the sudden death of its founder in December. Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, died at the age of 30 due to Crohn’s disease in India. The news of his death was published on this company’s Facebook page on July 14. The frozen assets are estimated to be about 140 million USD. QuadrigaCX is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada. According to Jennifer Robertson, Gerald Cotten’s widow, these frozen assets are in the form of a cold wallet, and are not retrievable, since only her husband had the private key to do it. In the cold wallet storing method, cryptocurrencies are stored offline without the need to have access to the internet. In this method, the possibility of cyber-attacks and thefts by hackers is reduced. This sudden incident has left QuadrigaCX with a big challenge to retrieve the assets of more than one hundred thousand users. According to Jennifer Robertson, the laptop used by Cotten to do the works of this exchange is encrypted, and she does not have access to its password. Recently, a number of security experts attempted to decrypt the laptop, but as Ms. Robertson said, some of the accounts may not be retrieved.

After this news was published, a lot of posts went around social media regarding its fakeness. For instance, someone on Reddit claimed that Cotten’s death is fake and that he has evidence of cryptocurrencies being moved from this company’s Litecoin wallet addresses. To give an end to these doubts, Coindesk news outlet published his death certificate issued by the Government of Rajasthan’s Directorate of Economics and Statistics. On this certificate, the date of his death is said to be on December 9, and Ms. Jennifer Robertson as his widow.

The court did not recognize the state of this company as bankrupt, which resulted in the complaint of QuadrigaCX. This company requested a 30-day deadline from the court so to decrypt the laptop of the company’s founder and gain access to approximately $180 million of frozen assets. This deadline ends on February 7. According to this company’s attorneys, in case the decryption of the laptop does not go well, the next alternative would be to sell QuadrigaCX to provide the needed liquidity to pay customers back. Currently, this company’s website offers no services and has only published a few statements on the creditor protection act and the 30-day deadline to investigate its situation in order to pay back what it owes to customers.

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n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/biggest-canadian-crypto-exchange-users’-assets-frozenhttps://www.counos.io/biggest-canadian-crypto-exchange-users’-assets-frozenSun, 24 Feb 2019 12:07:00 GMTFuture Blockchain Summit in DubaiThe biggest Blockchain summit in the world will be held for the second time in Dubai on April 2, 2019. This summit aims to be a haven for great minds and visionaries in the field of Blockchain technology, from government officials to startups, investors, developers, and all the Blockchain revolutionists from every corner of the world.

The Future Blockchain Summit will kick off on April 2, with a keynote speech delivered by the chairman of the summit, and will continue until April 3. There are going to be dozens of lectures on creative economy marketing, education, energy, finance, government, healthcare, real estate, retail, transport, supply chain, and tourism, all of which revolve around their Blockchain-based future. There are also going to be certified Blockchain workshops, open forums, exchanges between global leaders, a launchpad for pilot projects, and last but not least the entire summit is going to have extensive social media coverage.

This summit is surely the largest Blockchain festival in the world, at least in numbers! There are some staggering numbers announced ahead of its opening day. According to the official website of Future Blockchain Summit, 14,000 people, 175 startups and businesses, from a whopping 130 countries are scheduled to appear.

Among the most well-known organizations, businesses, and government bodies are Air France KLM, Atari & X2 Games, U.S. Department of State, Bank of Lithuania, Blockchain Development Foundation, Boston Children's Hospital, City of Palo Alto, CNN, Coca-Cola, Dubai Land Department, Dubai World Trade Centre, eBay, Government of Catalonia, Government of Estonia, Harvard, HSBC, LiteCoin, Lufthansa Group, Ministry Of Defence, Ministry of Social Affairs, MIT, Ripple, UN Sustainable Development Committee, World Bank, and World Food Program to name but a few.

There are also a number of superstar attendees, such as Abdel Mageed Yahia, director of World Food Program, Abraham Cambridge, founder and CEO of Sun Exchange, Amy McGann, foreign affairs officer at U.S. Department of State, Antonis Polemitis, CEO at University of Nicosia, Brent Wilton, global head of workplace rights at Coca-Cola, Franklyn Richards, founding director at LiteCoin, H.E. Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, director general of Smart Dubai Office, Japjit Tulsi, former vice president of engineering at eBay, Jordi Puignero, minister of digital for the government of Catalonia, Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari & X2 Games, Omar Ahsan, head of innovation at HSBC, Samuel Burke, business and technology correspondent at CNN, Thomas Hardjono, technical director at MIT, and Xavier Lagardere, vice president and head of distribution at Lufthansa.

To get a pass for this summit, you can head on to futureblockchainsummit.com, where you can also get a free pass for some parts of the summit. There are also accommodations in place, especially for this summit, that you can book prior to going to Dubai.

At Future Blockchain Summit, visionaries, investors, and government officials talk about implementing Blockchain in almost every aspect of life. These summits are of utmost importance because the future is Blockchain.

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https://www.counos.io/future-blockchain-summit-in-dubaihttps://www.counos.io/future-blockchain-summit-in-dubaiWed, 20 Feb 2019 06:46:00 GMTAmazon Will Soon Issue its Cryptocurrency; Said Binance CEOChanpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance exchange, the largest crypto exchange in the world with the most daily trades, said on his twitter on January 2, 2019, that the large retail company Amazon will use cryptocurrencies in the future as a payment option, he further added that it does not matter much when will amazon issue its cryptocurrency. He has confirmed the capability of Amazon in using cryptocurrency many times.

He stated in this regard that, “I do not understand why all the businesses working on the basis of the internet, do not use cryptocurrencies for their payments. Using cryptocurrencies compared with conventional payment gateways is easier, faster, and cheaper. It involves less red tape, and depends on a wider and more diverse population and geography.”

This retail giant has made a lot of efforts to develop different kinds of Blockchain technology, but its relation to cryptocurrency is based on rumors. One of these published rumors says that Amazon can integrate Bitcoin as a payment method in its mechanism.

Chanpeng Zhao said that in the payment process, using fiat currencies requires a lot of processing, and using them is not cost-effective, in his opinion. He further added that one advantage of cryptocurrencies over fiat currencies is that you can attract more customers worldwide by using cryptocurrencies as a payment method since customers are no longer limited to those who access to international payment gateways.

Another advantage of using cryptocurrencies compared to companies such as Paypal, which is only accessible in a limited number of countries, is the ease of payment operation for goods and services. All in all, it can be concluded that using cryptocurrencies in global businesses is substantially effective in attracting millions of customers.

On the other hand, growing the client base of companies such as Amazon is among the advantages of cryptocurrencies. He stated that he does not understand why some companies do not use cryptocurrencies as a payment option in their businesses.

Amazon has expressed its interest in accepting Bitcoin cryptocurrency as a payment option in the form of some rumors; but currently, due to the recent volatilities of the crypto market, it sounds impossible.

Amazon has developed its own exclusive coins that cannot be entered into the crypto market, and be considered as a kind of cryptocurrency. But this currency can be used in in-app purchases of stuff like specific software, games, and digital stuff on Android phones.

In short, if Amazon launches its cryptocurrency, it can develop by using its services such as Audible, Twitch Prime, Amazon Prime, and by making it possible to transfer capital in the area of the ecosystem. This company can eliminate other cryptocurrencies from the competition, by offering a 5-10% discount to its customers.

Considering all that has been said so far, a question arises, what happens if Amazon keeps out of the crypto domain?

One of the things that threaten the authority of Bitcoin is Amazon not entering the crypto domain; in other words, Bitcoin requires the confirmation and attracting the attention of customers from the investment stage to the revenue stage. Though, despite all the worries regarding this matter, it is improbable that Amazon will stay out of the digital domain. However, should this happen, Bitcoin will lose one of its largest online retail stores, and a huge blow will come to the potential of this retail giant.

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n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/amazon-will-soon-issue-its-cryptocurrency-said-binance-ceohttps://www.counos.io/amazon-will-soon-issue-its-cryptocurrency-said-binance-ceoTue, 12 Feb 2019 05:15:00 GMTFacebook to Develop its Own Blockchain ProjectFacebook Company announced new policies for its promotion plans on January 30, last year when publishing a new update in its official weblog. It banned all enticing promotion activities reportedly including cryptocurrencies advertisements and ICOs according to this statement. In addition to Facebook, Twitter and Google also administered such a decision.

After a while, through lifting these bans in June, it received and investigated various advertisement applications.

Facebook Will Hire Employees from Chainspace

Facebook which has hindered cryptocurrency promotions announced in December that intended to make cryptocurrency of its WhatsApp messenger. The first target market of this company was in India and has high popularity among its 20 million users.

Cheddar financial outlet cited from anonymous resources reports that Facebook has recruited some experts from Chainspace, a specialized company in the field of cryptocurrency founded by the researchers of London College. Chainspace website describes its project under the name of global smart contracts platform which uses Blockchain distributed networks to distribute, and create speed as well as private zone.

It was written on a banner in this official institution website that “we are excited to introduce what the team is going to reach.”

The Facebook spokesman announced that former employees of Chainspace company work on their own Blockchain part; however, it is in silence about many doubts and questions.

Like many other companies, Facebook is seeking for alternative methods to apply Blockchain technology power. According to Cheddar, this recruitment, which has been a kind of chartering, shows that Facebook was interested in its research team more than Chainspace technology. On the contrary, the company spokesman rejected this saying. He emphasized that Facebook has not taken technology or startup of this company, but some employees of Chainspace joined the internal group of Facebook.

Presently, the giant of social media hires employees for eleven sections of Blockchain which is more than that of last December.

Facebook Can Create WhatsApp Cryptocurrency

According to the CCN report, Facebook has worked on Blockchain or cryptocurrency projects for a period of time. It has not said anything about the outline of the project, but the sources has revealed that it probably be placed on the fiat-backed WhatsApp platform in the form of a stablecoin. The giant has smartly hired Blockchain developers, and currently, 40 staffs are working on its cryptocurrency projects. David Marcus, the former head of Messenger and a former Coinbase board member, leads it. Before that, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook managing Director, was committed to accomplish cryptocurrency research, one of his personal challenges, until 2018.

Similar Companies Engaged in Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

The first company and platform active in this regard is the telegram platform. This global messenger aims to publish a TON telegram open-network token and main network.

Moreover, a while ago, there was a piece of news implying that the Korean people are going to develop new software in Blockchain and cryptocurrencies and probably release it concomitant with Galaxy S10 to the users.

Why is Facebook Looking for a Stablecoin?

Cryptocurrency market has so far experienced much volatility. Bitcoin value has had some ebbs and flows. The fact is that cryptocurrencies lack any back, so their prices depend on market supply and demand. In the meantime, some backed-cryptocurrencies have been supplied; this support can be the countries’ currency or gold; consequently, they are safe against cryptocurrency market volatility. For instance, OneGram is a gold-backed cryptocurrency released by a United Arab Emirates company. Each Onegram’s value equals to the gold price in the world market. The other example is Petro, Venezuela’s national currency backed by its oil.

Facebook announced that the ultimate goal of this project is to provide availability of the services which don’t exist now such as healthcare, balanced financial services, and new information saving and sharing methods to millions of people.

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n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/facebook-to-develop-its-own-blockchain-projecthttps://www.counos.io/facebook-to-develop-its-own-blockchain-projectSun, 10 Feb 2019 05:31:00 GMTBitcoin is Deemed as legal tender From Now OnAccording to the published news in the beginning of this week, in a statement by Florida’s Third District Court, in case of using Bitcoin (BTC) in financial crimes, it will be considered a type of money.

If federal agencies take Bitcoin as a kind of money, it will pave the way for legalizing the field of exchange and transferring cryptocurrencies.

Based on the judgment as mentioned above, all Ms. Espinoza’s crimes and charges will be dismissed. The local court believes that Florida court has not announced any exact and strict definition for Bitcoin cryptocurrency and Bitcoin is not subject to cryptocurrency definition clearly. Encrypted coins are recognized as a payment instrument and of course as a cryptocurrency, and can be used as an instrument to do transaction and exchange considering its capability to convert them into fiat currency.

Fiat currency is an unbacked currency. It is the currency released by the states without any support and physical value. The value of this currency comes from the relationship between the degree of supply and demand. Fiat money is controlled and valued via a main center.

Is Bitcoin the Same as Money?

The question raised here is “what Bitcoin really is?” What are its difference with actual money and how can it be achieved?

Bitcoin is considered a cryptocurrency, and as currencies and coins can be used as actual money, Bitcoin can also be used a non-existent and virtual money; in other words, Bitcoin can be used to buy goods, reserve hotels and do so many online transactions.

Regarding Bitcoin cryptocurrency, through paying different amounts of it, different amounts of service and goods can be achieved. Hence, this cryptocurrency is assumed as a “Unit of Account.”

As a currency, Bitcoin has similar features to official money; you can save Bitcoin and use it with the same value in another time. This important feature we see in Bitcoin can be observed in other fiat currencies too.

Regarding the recent decision made by Florida court in case of using Bitcoin cryptocurrency as a kind of money, all Bitcoin illegal methods have been avoided. An illegal atmosphere to do transaction can engage you in big problems, since if you are hacked and robbed by the frauds, the process of searching and assets retrieval will be greatly difficult, and it is even possible to lose all your assets forever.

Admin...]]>https://www.counos.io/bitcoin-is-deemed-as-legal-tender-from-now-on
admin@admin.com (Admin)https://www.counos.io/bitcoin-is-deemed-as-legal-tender-from-now-onhttps://www.counos.io/bitcoin-is-deemed-as-legal-tender-from-now-onSat, 09 Feb 2019 13:48:00 GMTIt Is Now Possible to Purchase Tokenized Shares of Apple with Bitcoin and EthereumA Belarus-based startup has launched a secure and tokenized trading platform; through this commercial platform, the investors can purchase from conventional markets using Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Belarus has created a cryptography-friendly environment for Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies in the country. In December 2017, the government of Belarus recognized Bitcoin as a legal currency, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), and smart contracts. The government of Belarus also enacted a law to prohibit taxation from cryptocurrency mining, cryptocurrency trades, and Initial Coin Offerings until 2023.

Tokenized Securities

Blockchain technology company Currency.com said that it will release its commercial platform for tokenized securities. This Belarus-based platform intends to allow investors to engage in trades and investments using common financial tools such as shares, goods, and indices, directly and needless to exchange cryptocurrencies to fiat money.

According to this official press release, the mentioned trading platform will begin with 150 tokenized securities, including any securities such as well-known shares, to silver, oil, and natural gas; but, eventually, it will release more than 10000 tokenized securities.

Users will be able to purchase tokens that reflect the function of some conventional capitals; such as Apple stock which is listed in NASDAQ stock market. Their currencies will have the same value as that of Apple stock, and they can be purchased using Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain-based company Currency.com is the first Blockchain-based business that has received the license of Belarus High Technology Park, in short HTP, under the title of “Developing a Digital Economy” on November 8.

In addition to the fact that the mentioned commercial platform is consistent with local regulation, it enforces the explicit requirements of KYC and AML supported by Blockchain smart services like Elliptic, Chainanalysis, and Coinfirm. In fact, to control transactions, a Blockchain tracing software will be implemented.

Furthermore, Blockchain company Currency.com is set to utilize its FCA and CySEC regulated platforms in order to provide access to the tokenized copy in exchange for an index, goods or stock.

Are Tokenized Assets Changed into a Trend?

On January 3 this year, Bitcoinist news website reported that an Estonian platform named DX Exchange, allowed users to trade well-known stocks using Ethereum Blockchain tokens through smart contracts.

Meanwhile, in 2018, Unofficial Central Bank and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), formed a team with well-known companies such as Deloitte, Anquan, and NASDAQ to develop solutions for simultaneous trade and agreement in the field of tokenized cryptocurrencies and secure capitals.

NASDAQ stock exchange was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers, and its headquarter is in New York. NASDAQ stock exchange is open for six and a half working hours and starts working at 9:30 A.M. U.S. local time (5 P.M. in Tehran time zone) until 4 P.M. U.S. local time (00:30 A.M. in Tehran time zone). It has the highest number of stock trades in the world with 3321 participants and is considered the largest electronic trades market in the U.S.

It seems that tokenizing conventional capitals, such as shares, is turning into a developing trend; since the number of platforms owning this potential is increasing every day.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/it-is-now-possible-to-purchase-tokenized-shares-of-apple-with-bitcoin-and-ethereum
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/it-is-now-possible-to-purchase-tokenized-shares-of-apple-with-bitcoin-and-ethereumhttps://www.counos.io/it-is-now-possible-to-purchase-tokenized-shares-of-apple-with-bitcoin-and-ethereumFri, 08 Feb 2019 08:03:00 GMT$190 Million Worth Digital Asset Missing from QuadrigaCX Exchange after Its Founder’s DemiseFollowing the February 1st announcement by Nova Scotia supreme court, after the sudden death of Gerry Cotten, QuadrigaCX Canadian cryptocurrency exchange founder, it lost its cold wallets and its digital assets were disappeared to the worth of 190 million CA (equal to 145 million USD) in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash SV, Bitcoin Gold, Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum.

Gerry Cotten was the only one to monitor the wallets and their associated keys, and after his demise, the exchange did not access to those funds. The common process was that Gerry Cotten transferred a large bulk of cryptocurrencies to the cold wallets to keep them against hacking and theft; although the exchanges sometimes can withdraw their funds in critical conditions through the multi-signature system.

Jennifer Robertson, Mr. Cotton’s widow, has stated that he was working with a computer at home which has unfortunately been encrypted. She continued that: “I don’t know the password or restore keys; despite repeated attempts and searches, I didn’t find anything which these keys have been written on.

Moreover, active operators in this exchange remarked that the manager’s monopolistic access to the cold wallet is very hazardous; since it makes the wallet vulnerable to the frauds’ kidnapping and extortion. Regarding what Mr. Cotten has done, Michael Gokturk, Einstein CEO stated that: “it is similar to walking around the city all the time with the hands full of millions of dollars of cash.”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Robertson recruited a cyber-security expert to decode Mr. Cotten’s laptop, but he has not so far succeeded in doing that, and it caused a liquidity crisis in this exchange. Of course, QuadrigaCX has explored many cold wallets with few cryptocurrencies in them.

The company said that it possesses just the liquidity of $286000 and it is an ignorable fund compared to $260 million owed to its users.

The assets of this company are not useable due to being stored in cold wallets, because these wallets are not connected to the internet network and protect existing cryptocurrencies against any attack and robbery.

The users of this cryptocurrency platform requested from the exchange authorities a document denoting Mr. Cotten’s demise due to not being able to withdraw their funds.

In spite of the investors’ complaints, this exchange tries to protect the company against them; therefore, QuadricaCX has asked for a deadline for this exchange and its cooperators to decode cold wallets.

Robertson has told that in addition to the aforementioned complaints on the part of the investors, she has been threatened by the users and sent derogatory and false views for her and her contacts on Facebook.

Despite all these events, she stated that if this exchange is not able to decode the wallet and return the investors’ fund, it will assign it the business to the investing users as there have been some suggestions in this regard too.

Finally, it can be said that this exchange could avoid the problems through an internal management system.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/190-million-worth-digital-asset-missing-from-quadrigacx-exchange-after-its-founder’s-demise
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/190-million-worth-digital-asset-missing-from-quadrigacx-exchange-after-its-founder’s-demisehttps://www.counos.io/190-million-worth-digital-asset-missing-from-quadrigacx-exchange-after-its-founder’s-demiseThu, 07 Feb 2019 06:21:00 GMTThreatening Messages for Messari CEO, after Ripple Cryptocurrency Analysis Report, Got OutRyan Selkis, CEO of Messari, which works in the field of analyzing and evaluating cryptocurrencies, said in a Twitter post that after his critical cryptocurrency analysis report about Ripple (XRP), he has received threatening messages. After referring to the police, he posted another tweet and with respect to his previous twitter post, called this matter a childish harassment.

Ripple is an open source distributed payment network, and also the name of a cryptocurrency. This cryptocurrency was introduced back in 2012.

Messari claimed on January 24, last year that the value of Ripple cryptocurrency is perhaps billions of dollars more than what it actually is in the market. The company said that it had attained the information used in its analyses from intermediary cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers. Ryan Selkis wrote on his Twitter account following the publication of this report that he had been threatened via a phone call by an anonymous person:

“someone called me with the area code of Nashville, Tennessee, and reminded my wife’s birthday to me; then threatened my family before hanging up.”

Following this tweet, Selkis published the report of receiving two more threatening messages, and accused heads of Ripple, including Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, David Schwartz, its senior technology manager, and Monica Long, its senior marketing manager, of threatening his family.

He expressed that these threats are from the Ripple family:

“I want to sue the company Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, Monica Long, Cory Johnson, David Schwartz, and members of Ripple family for threatening my family. After receiving three threatening messages, and to ensure that no harm will come to my family, I went to the FBI and local police. I will not return home until this matter is publically announced.”

After referring to the police to report the harassing phone calls he had received, he posted another tweet and stressed that these phone calls have nothing to do with the Ripple family:

“I am in the police station. These calls were probably childish harassment.”

When this tweet was posted, no Ripple family manager or employee responded to it. Messari and its CEO made no comments in this regard either. However, the Ripple research center responded to this post on its Twitter account, and demanded an apology from Ryan Selkis:

“Are you going to formally apologize for accusing five members of Ripple family of threatening your family, when you had no witness or evidence to prove your claim? I hope you have the courage to stand by what you said.”

Ripple announced in its 2018 fourth-quarter report that Ripple token sales have decreased compared to that of the third quarter in the same year. During that time Ripple has sold $129 million’s worth of tokens; while its sales have been $163 million in the third quarter.

According to data by CoinMarketCap, currently the value of Ripple is less than $13 billion in the market, and with respect to the market value, it is in second place after Bitcoin.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/threatening-messages-for-messari-ceo-after-ripple-cryptocurrency-analysis-report-got-out
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/threatening-messages-for-messari-ceo-after-ripple-cryptocurrency-analysis-report-got-outhttps://www.counos.io/threatening-messages-for-messari-ceo-after-ripple-cryptocurrency-analysis-report-got-outWed, 06 Feb 2019 10:21:00 GMTHackers Steal Cryptocurrencies via Changing Phone NumbersThere is a high risk of robbery wherever something valuable is present. Hence the people have entrusted their worthwhile things to a trustworthy person from a long time ago, though it then was undertaken by the banks.

Nowadays the robberies are totally different. You can scarcely see a robber covering his face breaking into someone’s home and stealing his/her money and jewelry, especially in the current digital world with a gradual disappearing physical nature of paper money that makes this type of robbery no more practical. Although cryptocurrencies sometimes face a sharp drop, they are replacing paper money through developing themselves. The fact that many governments have turned to release their own cryptocurrency bears out the claim that the cryptocurrencies have had a good performance despite all difficulties. In spite of all the advantages and demerits of the cryptocurrencies, large numbers of people have been interested in the cryptocurrency world, and the robbers are not an exception; those who commit it via their systems without the bother of climbing the walls. Sometimes very young, they can commit robberies and put massive financial systems into trouble.

One of the robbers who is a twenty-year-old student has stolen five million cryptocurrencies from 40 victims. This young robber succeeded in stealing the victims’ cryptocurrencies through hijacking the phone numbers, he confessed to his crime at the court and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.

As Erin West, Deputy District Attorney of Santa Clara County, California, Ortiz admitted his impeachments and will officially be penalized on March 14. Based on the authorities’ announcement, Ortiz is the first one condemned to SIM swapping. Prosecutors and bailiffs of this case hope it can be an eye opener either for those arrested before or the robbers who are still at large.

The Increasing Number of SIM Swapping

The number of such a kind of robbery is increasing. The robbers use this method to steal fiat money (the money unbacked by gold and silver), cryptocurrencies and even the information of the users’ social networks or whatever with the potential to be sold in black market.

How Do the Robbers Do SIM swap?

In hijacking SIM number, the robbers call the mobile operator and claim that their SIM card has been lost and request the transfer of their number to a new SIM. The criminals convince mobile operators reasoning that these numbers are for their social services or addresses.

When the mobile operator transfers the number to a new SIM, the hackers can do a two-stage account authentication. One of the hackers told the Motherboard that through a personal phone number, his /her account information will be available in a few seconds; therefore, he/she cannot do anything about it.

Other Cryptocurrency Robberies

During the last year, the authorities identified another crime related to the cryptocurrency. In Russia, security guards arrested a group of nuclear engineers aiming to mine Bitcoin through a supercomputer. The others arrested include Zavyer Narvaez, stealing about $1million of Bitcoins and Nicholas Truglia, stealing millions of Bitcoins. Moreover, Joseph Harris is one of the notorious robbers who has stolen $14 million via robbing phone numbers.

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n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/hackers-steal-cryptocurrencies-via-changing-phone-numbershttps://www.counos.io/hackers-steal-cryptocurrencies-via-changing-phone-numbersTue, 05 Feb 2019 05:37:00 GMTAlipay and WeChat Asked Cryptocurrency Exchange Huobi to Remove Their Payment Methods from its OTC sectionAccording to a report published by local news outlet Sina on January 25, Alipay and WeChat companies demanded again from the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi to remove their payment services from its Over-The-Counter (OTC) section.

Huobi is a well-known exchange in the cryptocurrency market. This exchange was first founded in China, but after a while, it opened up offices in Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and the United States. In August 2018, this exchange was officially registered in Hong Kong as a company.

Reportedly, the two big financial services companies, namely Alipay (under the Alibaba Group Holding) and WeChat payment services, have frequently sent legal letters to Huobi, and claim that the use of their company services and even their logo in the OTC section of Huobi exchange to be illicit activity.

OTC services are trades between the two parties directly without being overseen by the exchange. OTC trades compared to those of the exchanges have numerous advantages including facilitating the market’s liquidity, providing transparency in the trade, and most importantly maintaining the market’s current price.

Based on information obtained from local news outlet Sina, both Alipay and WeChat have neither offered their services to Huobi exchange nor even have they given permission to it to use their companies’ trademarks.

Nonetheless, Huobi’s OTC trading platform has allowed its users to upload QR codes from both Alipay and WeChat systems several times to facilitate trading cryptocurrencies for users in its own platform.

Sina news agency stated that payment methods of Alipay and WeChat are still available at Huobi’s OTC platform on January 28.

On January 29, Huobi responded to these statements and claimed that it has not received any letters, and further added that a particular payment platform’s logo is merely a way to show the payment link. This exchange stressed that there is no cooperation between Huobi and the two payment companies and that all the money transfers by this exchange’s users are done through peer-to-peer payments.

At first in August 2018, Alipay used strong measures against its users who used their Alipay accounts to trade in OTC Bitcoin. Alipay company, which is considered a giant among payment systems, and which recently broke a record by one billion users worldwide, constrained accounts that traded in the OTC Bitcoin platform several times, and also implemented a control system for website and accounts’ passwords.

WeChat, a Chinese social media network with one billion users and developed by Tencent Technology, took measures a while back with respect to cryptocurrency accounts. In August 2018, WeChat service blocked a number of cryptocurrency accounts which were suspected of releasing Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). In September, WeChat blocked an official sales channel for Bitcoin mining devices since they allegedly violated their license.

In late 2018, Huobi cryptocurrency exchanges group confirmed that a number of their employees have been let go due to cryptocurrency’s declining market. Recently, HBUS, Huobi’s commercial partner in the U.S., said that it will move its retail trading services from HBUS.com to Huobi.com.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/alipay-and-wechat-asked-cryptocurrency-exchange-huobi-to-remove-their-payment-methods-from-its-otc-section
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/alipay-and-wechat-asked-cryptocurrency-exchange-huobi-to-remove-their-payment-methods-from-its-otc-sectionhttps://www.counos.io/alipay-and-wechat-asked-cryptocurrency-exchange-huobi-to-remove-their-payment-methods-from-its-otc-sectionMon, 04 Feb 2019 09:36:00 GMTMore than 60 Percent of Cryptocurrency Thefts Committed by Two Expert Groups!Recently, Chainalysis company presented a report denoting that two groups of expert hackers have committed most cyber-attacks in the field of cryptocurrency. This report was made by gathering and analyzing cyber incidents at the institutions and organizations such as trade centers which are active in cryptocurrency. These incidents include grand thefts up to tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. Based on the estimations of Chainalysis, these two expert groups have succeeded in stealing approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrencies in their attacks, which accounts for at least 60% of published public reports. In Chainalysis report, these two groups are called Alpha and Beta.

The first groups, Alpha, is an organized and conservative group which has aims beyond merely getting rich! Though, its aims have not been elaborated in Chainalysis report.

The second group, called Beta, is less conservative toward hiding its illicit activities, and smaller as well as less organized compared to Alpha. This group interred here just for profit.

In order to make their hacks obscure, both groups transfer the stolen assets among various wallets so to make it hard to trace. For instance, in a hack by Alpha, the stolen cryptocurrency was moved 15 thousand times, and then quickly changed to cash. Alpha group usually liquidates the stolen cryptocurrencies thirty days after the theft, but Beta tends toward keeping it. Beta usually keeps the stolen assets for months and most of the times for more than a year and then changes it into cash.

Chainalysis has announced that it has gained no more information about these two groups, and it is even possible for the current information to be incorrect. These findings proposed a new and threatening view about cryptocurrencies. Although one of the threats to the cryptocurrency networks is the dominance of one group who has the most mining computing power, called the 51-percent attack, but it seems that the activities of these two groups are not necessarily limited to this type of attack. These results show how a small group can influence the entire field of cryptocurrencies by its activities.

According to statistics published by CipherTrace in December 2018, cryptocurrency theft has had a significant rise compared to that of two previous years. In the third quarter of 2018, hackers stole about $927 million from its related trade centers and platforms, while in 2016 and 2017 it was $152 and $226 million respectively.

In the report published by Group-IB last year, the source of some of the prominent attacks in the field of cryptocurrencies is said to be North Korean hacker group, Lazarus. It is stated in this report that Lazarus group has stolen an approximate amount of $571 million during 2017 and 2018 from cryptocurrency trade centers such as Yapizon, Coins, YouBit, CoinCheck, and Bithumb. It seems that in the face of international sanctions, the field of cryptocurrencies has been a more suitable target for this hacker group. By putting these two reports together, it can be deduced that one of Alpha or Beta groups in Chainalysis report can be Lazarus group.

This and other similar reports show that the field of cryptocurrency is vulnerable against cyber incidents and it requires security provisions more than before. Inattention to this important matter can harm the credibility of companies active in cryptocurrency, and this would leave no choice for these companies but to abandon it.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/more-than-60-percent-of-cryptocurrency-thefts-committed-by-two-expert-groups
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/more-than-60-percent-of-cryptocurrency-thefts-committed-by-two-expert-groupshttps://www.counos.io/more-than-60-percent-of-cryptocurrency-thefts-committed-by-two-expert-groupsMon, 04 Feb 2019 08:57:00 GMTCipherTrace’s Report on the Security of CryptocurrenciesAmong the features of cryptocurrencies that made them so popular is their security.

It is said that cryptocurrencies have a high security and it is not easy to manipulate them. If this claim is to be true, then what about all the news of hacking and stealing cryptocurrencies?

Research by CipherTrace indicates that in 2018, $1.7 billion’s worth of cryptocurrencies have been obtained through theft and scams. Of this $1.7 billion, more than $950 million has been stolen through trading cryptocurrencies which is a 3.6 percent increase in theft compared to that of 2017. Furthermore, $725 million has been stolen in 2018 through scams like Ponzi schemes, exit schemes, and offering fake coins. Of this amount, $6 million was Bitcoin, of which $4 million went missing, and $2 million was stolen.

CipherTrace has published a list of 10 different scams commonplace in the field of cryptocurrencies:

The first on the list is SIM swapping, which is assumed a type of identity theft and includes taking over the victim’s phone number in order to gain access to authentication codes. Among other cited threats is crypto dusting, which is sending destructive cryptocurrencies to a large number of different addresses.

Also, promoting cryptocurrencies to circumvent international sanctions, which is backed by countries such as Iran and Venezuela, is among the illicit ways to use cryptocurrencies.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, research by Chainanalysis showed that two groups of hackers that are possibly still active have stolen $1 billion’s worth of cryptocurrencies. These two groups that are called Alpha and Beta are responsible for 60 percent of exchange and overseeing services hacks.

Two weeks ago, New Zealand-based exchange Cryptopia was hacked. The final amount of theft is not yet clear.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/ciphertrace’s-report-on-the-security-of-cryptocurrencies
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/ciphertrace’s-report-on-the-security-of-cryptocurrencieshttps://www.counos.io/ciphertrace’s-report-on-the-security-of-cryptocurrenciesSun, 03 Feb 2019 11:36:00 GMTBlockchain, A Way to Enjoy Transparency in Food IndustryMany of the giants in the food industry such as Walmart, IBM, and Nestle make use of Blockchain technology to track transfer stages of their products.

Nestle, the biggest food retailer in Switzerland, says that IBM Food Trust will be prepared this year to help new producers and consumers.

Benjamin Dubois, digital transformation manager of global supply chain at Nestle, was interviewed by the Swiss Heure 24 newspaper about it too.

IBM Food Trust Blockchain project was started in autumn 2016, and Walmart did its first experiments in December 2016 in China. On the other hand, Nestle has been busy conducting research since August 2017.

New Blockchain Technology, A Way to Inspire the Customers’ Confidence

According to Dubois, this project has been developed responding to the consumers’ request for more transparency and trust in food products. New Blockchain technology can be a way to win the customer’s confidence.

The objective of this project is enabling companies to track the issues and problems related to food products such as diseases prevalence and decrease the risk of their infection. Since most of the businesses still use the black and white system to register and record, it would be very hard to find the where the contaminated food products have come from, sent to, sold and consumed.

Tracking Products Via Blockchain from Production to Consumption

Blockchain technology dramatically accelerates the tracking speed of all the products besides their production stages, and each retailer can share its information in case of necessity. These data can include information such as products’ processing, transportation or labeling which can be tracked in a matter of seconds.

As heure 24 has stated, this platform is a powerful tool which provides this facility for the retailers to inspire the customer’s confidence and manage the data through a safe and decentralized manner which results in information observability at any time.

As Dubois points out, among its benefits is that the produced and consumed products’ information will be available for the consumers. Through a simple QR code, the consumer not only understands the product’s originality and ingredients, but he/she also is informed about the farmer, production time, expiry date, factory identity wherein the product is kept, even the number of the workers at the agricultural organization and the type of official license the producer has.

Successful Experiences of Using Blockchain in Food Industry

Current consumers seek for a portion of healthy and aboriginal food; that is, there now imposed more sensitivity to the security of food ingredients more than any other time. Therefore, the companies have used Blockchain technology to supervise food and agricultural products such as tracking rice in Cambodia, meat products in China and dairy products in the U.S and their reason is requiring more transparency.

Dubois remarked that several technical challenges will remain till 2019, information systems coordination management and not having a specific date for the actualization of this plan are some cases in point.

France Food Scandals, a Reason to Support This Plan

Besides welcoming this plan, France Consumers’ federation stated that not being traceable and high number of intermediaries were the impediments to identify the main responsible for the past food scandals in France.

Using a forbidden material at laying hen farms is among scandals occurred for France food industry. Formerly, the horses sold for the pharmaceutical industry in this country were found in the protein market. Carrefour, the largest French retailer and the member of IBM Food Trust, has recently launched Hyperledger tracking platform for its Spanish network.

Applying Blockchain technology can avoid fraud in food and its following damages besides transparency and winning the consumers’ confidence.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/blockchain-a-way-to-enjoy-transparency-in-food-industry
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/blockchain-a-way-to-enjoy-transparency-in-food-industryhttps://www.counos.io/blockchain-a-way-to-enjoy-transparency-in-food-industrySun, 03 Feb 2019 08:07:00 GMTStealing Cryptocurrency ATM from a Bakery!According to a report by CNN, this time cryptocurrency thieves stole a cryptocurrency ATM from a Bakery in California. During this theft, which took place in the Belwood bakery located in Brentwood county in Los Angeles. Thieves unhinged the ATM from the wall of this bakery with a hammer. CCTV footage shows the attacker, who had covered his face completely, breaking the glass door of the bakery with a hammer, entered the shop. Then he went straight up to the ATM and hits it a couple of times with the hammer, and finally unhinged it from the wall.

The thief’s attempts to break open the ATM with the hammer were fruitless, and he eventually put the ATM on his shoulders and exited the shop.

Third Consecutive Theft from Belwood Bakery in Recent Weeks

The owner of this shop has told CBS reporter that it was the third theft happened in the recent weeks.

On a video aired by CBS from the night of December 21, two thieves tried to enter the bakery with the same method. Another group had also stolen from the bakery on December 18, but in both cases, the thieves left empty-handed.

Currently, it is not clear whether these thefts are related, or the thieves accrued any money.

Frequent Thefts Threaten the Life of Small Businesses

Belwood bakery started out back in 1994, and it has since been well-known for its delicious sweets and friendly service. Derek Tran, a family member of the bakery owner, said to CBS that he did not know whether any money was in the ATM or not. He says that the experience of consecutive thefts endangers their occupation survival.

We best hope that thieves were smart enough to know that Bitcoins are not the kind of coins that have a physical presence. Maybe they were mentally deranged!

After all, what did the thieves expect to do with a cryptocurrency ATM? Did they want to sell it to someone who collects cryptocurrency ATMs or sell it off as a hotdog vendor?

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/stealing-cryptocurrency-atm-from-a-bakery
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/stealing-cryptocurrency-atm-from-a-bakeryhttps://www.counos.io/stealing-cryptocurrency-atm-from-a-bakerySun, 03 Feb 2019 06:08:00 GMTNo More Ban on Bitcoin, A Silver Lining for Crypto-Rial Release in IranFollowing the attempts to circumvent the U.S. second tranche of sanctions imposed by the U.S president, Donald Trump, Iran took the first steps to lift the ban on cryptocurrency, e.g., Bitcoin, to set the stage for more convenient international financial transactions and releasing its own sovereign cryptocurrency; albeit, it entails negotiations with foreign partners which has recently been launched through some conferences and summits.

The preliminary measure taken by Iran’s central bank include issuing the primary draft of cryptocurrency laws denoting no more bans on Bitcoin, digital token, ICOs, etc.; although there will be some limitations in their domestic use, they can be safely applied for the business by the people. It goes without saying that there will be some legal prohibitions for the financial institutions in working with them; since it would be risky for maintaining Rial monopoly.

The aforementioned legislation will include other related technologies such as crypto-wallet, and mining too. To make use of cross-border benefits of cryptocurrencies to improve Iran’s poor economy, eight foreign countries including Switzerland, South Africa, France, England, Russia, Austria, Germany, and Bosnia have taken part to talk about future trades with Iran through this newly-confirmed cryptocurrency.

Following the recent economic dilemma Iran has confronted; that is, SWIFT suspension, starting international trades based on cryptocurrency seems a necessity to help Iran cope with the situation with the lowest risk possible.

What has been embarked in Iran is preceded with a similar one carried out in Russia by creating national crypto to solve the problems related to SWIFT suspension. The similar financial approach taken by two neighbor countries resulted in signing a trilateral agreement between Iran, Russia, and Armenia with the target of employing Blockchain too.

addition to legalizing cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology in Iran, its other promising innovation is to unveil a state-backed cryptocurrency, Crypto-Rial, at the Annual Conference of Electronic Banking and Payment Systems held January 29, 2019. For the time being the Iranian authorities’ supposition for crypto-Rial is its constrained application as a payment tool between the banks and cryptocurrency-funded institutes.

Editor...]]>https://www.counos.io/no-more-ban-on-bitcoin-a-silver-lining-for-crypto-rial-release-in-iran
n.sherafatnejad@farhost.net (Editor)https://www.counos.io/no-more-ban-on-bitcoin-a-silver-lining-for-crypto-rial-release-in-iranhttps://www.counos.io/no-more-ban-on-bitcoin-a-silver-lining-for-crypto-rial-release-in-iranSat, 02 Feb 2019 15:34:00 GMTConsenSys and AMD Cooperation to Develop Blockchain-Based Cloud Computing InfrastructureBlockchain software company, ConsenSys, semiconductor manufacturer AMD, and investment management firm, Halo Holdings in Abu Dhabi, are cooperating on a project to develop a Blockchain-based cloud computing infrastructure. ConsenSys announced this news in an interview on June 4. Also, these companies built W3BCLOUD device which is used to develop AMD hardware-based data center product to be used in the future to provide Blockchain-based infrastructure. In this regard, ConsenSys will designate some specialists in the area of Blockchain transactions computing, security matters, and applications in technology.

Blockchain-Based Cloud Computing

Cloud computing infrastructure is a type of database which has been implemented on a cloud computing basis. Many companies apply this basis to perform computations regarding their database. However, with the advent of Blockchain technology, the database has assumed a new concept; hence, companies such as AMD and ConsenSys are aspiring to combine Blockchain with a cloud computing system to build a comprehensive infrastructure that would be able to eliminate cloud computing problems.

Reportedly, W2BCLOUD is supposed to be the first independent Blockchain cloud computing infrastructure to meet the needs of the public and private sectors. Product and Blockchain technology manager, Joreg Roskowetz, stated that this product is going to be designed to tackle challenges such as smart identity, enterprise data centers, and health ID tracking to issue license and supply chain management. AMD chips have been very popular in the Blockchain network, and they are especially used for cryptocurrency mining. From the one hand, 10% of this company income in the last quarter income has come from cryptocurrency mining. With the changes in Bitcoin price, hype and investment in this area have decreased and according to the miners, themselves, their revenue was minimal at the end of 2018.

Recently in December, ConsenSys signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SK Group, a South Korean company. This Memorandum was about developing a Blockchain business model using smart contracts. Moreover, this Memorandum included training Ethereum Blockchain developers in the South Korea by the SK Holdings C&C’s Tech Training Center from the ConsenSys company.

In November, AMD cooperated with seven technology big cats to develop eight new cryptocurrency mining rigs. AMD announced that this cooperation leads to new Blockchain computational solutions in the market to meet the needs of innovative Blockchain platforms. Furthermore, AMD released a video on Blockchain, which was about the main features of this technology, and named its main advantages to be trust, integrity, and security.